Tag: john boehner

Six months ago I bluntly told you that in a Ted Cruz Donald Trump race, Trump was the establishment pick:

If Ted Cruz is willing to take on practically his entire caucus as the junior senator against a powerful Senate leader how much more willing will he be willing to do so with the bully pulpit & the power that comes with it in his hands? The Supreme Court Fights alone will be epic and I suspect a man as familiar with the court as he will managed to find actual conservatives to both nominate and fight for.

Now contrast that worry with what the Establishment will had to deal with in a Trump administration. Picture a group of people appointed by a pragmatic deal maker and picture the establishment and even the left having to deal with Trump and his appointees, many of whom will be self-made and have absolutely no loyalty to the conservative electorate that said establishment loathes so much.

Then finally consider Trump himself, he prides himself as being person who is a great negotiator and dealmaker. The problem with a dealmaker is the key question: “What do you give up to make the deal?”

If you are an Establishment republican or even a democrat that question will console you, but as a social conservative it does not.

So for me it’s no surprise that John Boehner is now on the Trump train:

The former House speaker also described the two other Republican candidates as friends. He recalled playing golf with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for years, and said they were “texting buddies.” Despite Trump being short of the 1,237 delegates required to win the nomination, Boehner accepted that The Donald is the presumptive Republican nominee.

While he did not praise Trump’s policies, the former speaker said he would vote for The Donald in a general election. He said he would not, however, vote for Cruz.

What? This isn’t possible, we’ve just been told for months by the Trump campaign that Ted Cruz is the insider and Donald Trump was the outsiders and that Ted Cruz maintaining the opposite was lying.

Next thing you’ll be telling me that Ted Cruz is telling the Truth about Donald Trump being liberal:

Boehner may have attacked Obama’s sharpest critic, but he had positive words for the president himself. The Stanford Daily reported that the former speaker “reflected positively on his relationship with Obama. Although he acknowledged that the two disagree, Boehner said the two get along well.” While it is good to make friends across the aisle, the sharp criticism against a fellow Republican — one of the most insistent and orthodox conservatives in recent memory — contrasted with praise for the putative head of the Democratic Party strikes conservatives the wrong way.

The former House speaker also praised Hillary Clinton, after briefly mocking her sexist campaign. “Oh, I’m a woman, vote for me,” he said, but the crowd reacted negatively. Later, he admitted that he has known Clinton for 25 years and finds her to be very accomplished and smart.

Boehner also added that he thinks Bernie Sanders is a nice guy and the most honest politician in the race, even though he disagrees with the Vermont senator’s positions on nearly all of the issues.

So to sum up, John Boehner, fan of Clinton, fan of Sanders, fan of Obama, fan of Trump, hates Ted Cruz.

The same players who detest Ted Cruz have now recruited a straw man RINO to run against Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), one of the most intrepid conservatives in the House of Representatives.

and who are they funding to oppose him?

Well, who is Tom Atkinson? He is the quintessential wealthy trans-ideological Republican. He donated to a liberal Democrat, Kathy Taylor, who ran against the Republican mayor of Tulsa. That Republican mayor, Dewey Bartlett, is Tom Atkinson’s own brother-in-law! Atkinson has tapped Shane Saunders, a former aid to John Sullivan, the RINO Bridenstine defeated in 2012. Saunders is known to be close with Boehner as well.

On Atkinson’s campaign website and in his ads, he sells himself as a conservative and not a politician. But how could a conservative donate to a prominent Democrat who funded Emily’s List and held fundraisers for Joe Biden?

So for all the republicans who were outraged over John Boehner who have within a few months of cheering his departure bought into the false attacks on Ted Cruz by the Trump campaign let Ted answer it directly:

John Boehner, in his remarks, described Donald Trump as his texting and golfing buddy. So if you want someone that’s a texting and golfing buddy, if you’re happy about John Boehner, Speaker of the House, and if you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump’s your man.

A lot of people have been played this cycle and in the internet age there is no excuse for it.

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While all that spleen venting must feel good for them it’s a spectacular lesson on the difference between groups who vote for the GOP and groups who vote for Democrats this week.

With the resignation of Boehner the GOP is on notice that there are consequences for attacking the voters and the base. It demonstrates that if one decides to abandon the principles that the voters who elected you hold, there is a cost.

The president of the Navajo Nation slammed President Obama and Democrats for deserting the tribe’s 300,000 people after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accidentally polluted a river the tribe depends on, leaving one-third of the reserve’s drinking water unsafe.

In an exclusive interview with The Hill, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye again called on Obama and administration officials to declare the San Juan River a disaster zone.

In August, an EPA accident resulted in 3 million gallons of contaminated water flowing into the Animas River, which runs into the San Juan River. One-third of the Navajo Nation’s people rely on the Animus for water.

Mind you this isn’t a question of some abstract principle or deeply held belief, this is the drinking water of a population, a basic necessity for survival.

“We are asking the Democratic Party to have President Obama declare the river a disaster area — and we haven’t gotten anything. Nothing,” he said. “The Democrats? I don’t know what happened. We basically are Democrats. We always vote Democrat. But it seems like they’ve just walked away. And we’re not hearing anything that’s of value to us from the Democrats.”

emphasis mine, you mean to say that you always vote Democrat and the people who you vote for without questioning take you for granted? Who woulda thunk it!

“With Obama, we’ve been asking for him to at least give us a call and tell us you are there to help us and walk with us. But we have heard not a word. It seems like they’ve just closed the doors and walked away,” Begaye said. “We were the swing vote for them for years and they haven’t done a thing.”

Forgetting for a moment that these hearing were launched by a Republican Senate let me simply remind you that since the 60’s the Black community has completely embraced the Democrat party to the point where democrats have no fear of the black vote going GOP.

For the black voters who saved Barack Obama in 2012, the Great Recession and the slow recovery have been one long continuing catastrophe. Between 2007 and 2009, black homeowners were 70 percent more likely to suffer foreclosure than whites. Higher-earning black families were 80 percent more likely to lose their homes than their white counterparts.

and for the kids it was worse

Despite three years of supposed economic recovery, black children were as likely to be poor in 2013 as in 2010—and more likely than at any time since the early 1990s. Almost four out of 10 black children are now growing up in poverty, as against one in nine white children. More than 25 percent of the black poor now live in areas of concentrated poverty, triple the rate for poor white people.

The Senate passed a Republican-authored budget plan early on Friday that seeks $5.1 trillion in domestic spending cuts over 10 years while boosting military funding.

This is a double whammy not only do we get cuts rather than an increase but we get a huge contrast with the Harry Reid Era:

The House passed its budget resolution on Wednesday after a similar process of debate and amendment. Some journalists might be unfamiliar with this process after six years of Democratic Party grandstanding under the cataclysmic leadership of Harry Reid, but this is called “regular order” budgeting. Reid’s decision to abandon that process was what led to several years of budgeting by brinksmanship, “fiscal cliffs,” debt-ceiling standoffs, and the like.

Reid just announced his retirement, I wonder if he didn’t want to deal with the ads that would practically write themselves?

To be sure we likely need a lot more budget responsibility that this package produced and that’s why some people like Rand Paul voted “No” but if you are my age and lived through decades of unfettered Democrat power in congress that people under 40 might not remember the concept congress of cutting the budget, even slightly is a huge deal.

Now granted we need a lot more cuts and we will need strong conservative to keep them honest but in the end this budget resolution means the GOP is capable of , at least slowly moving our financial house in the direction it should be in.

That’s a good sign and the leadership deserves credit for getting it done.

Given the educational standards advanced by Democrats in public school one might expect members of the party to have issues with basic skills such as math comprehension & Geography and problem solving.

However the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representative is Nancy Pelosi who having been born in 1940 was educated long before her liberal fellows took over the educational system and under her leadership her caucus is giving strong evidence that not only are their mathematical skills on par with former Democrat speaker Tip O’Neill but their geographical and problem solving skills are greater than expected.

To wit, they have taken a look at the electoral map and have concluded that there is little or no chance of their party convincing enough voters in increasingly conservative congressional districts nationwide to return control of the house to their party anytime in the decade, let alone in the near future leaving their liberal agenda in doubt.

“Personally, I don’t want to waste two years,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said Wednesday. “And I think that the crazy Tea Party type would probably not be willing to work with us on anything.

“My hope is that, what comes out of this is that Boehner realizes that there are some people in his caucus who are unreasonable, and you can never get them to say ‘yes’ to anything,” McGovern added. “Rather than spending so much time agonizing over how to please them, maybe he just ought to focus on how you build more bipartisan coalitions and actually get some things done.”

McGovern is making perfect sense here, why bother spending millions of dollars in a futile effort to sell your horrible destructive ideas to the American public when you just have to win over already elected republicans in fairly safe districts? The math is so much easier.

And if there is one thing we know if there is one thing the GOP establishment and leadership have in common with the Democrats, it’s their absolute hatred of the GOP conservative base.

You might want to keep that in mind the next time the GOP asks you for money.

Because we’d rather not take someone else’s word for it, we inquired independently. This weekend, Speaker Boehner’s office assured us House Republicans had no plans to capitulate to the demands of Senate Democrats. As to the speculation that there was some kind of a deal with Pelosi? “There is no such ‘deal’ or promise,” says Boehner Spokesman Michael Steel.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise echoed the sentiments saying, “There is no such deal and there’s no such bill,” Scalise said on “Fox News Sunday.” “On Friday, there was a bill on the House floor to pass a clean funding bill. We rejected that because we said we’re fighting the president on what he’s doing illegally on immigration,” according to The Hill.

If there is one thing that’s axiomatic on Capital Hill it’s this: If you want to get the attention of the lobbyists and the various monied interests you need to have power and influence or the prospect of shortly gaining it.

If there is one person who, media attention notwithstanding, has no prospect for power or influence anytime soon, it’s Nancy Pelosi.

With State Legislatures firmly in GOP hands an unpopular lame duck president and John Boehner GOP caucus holding a full 247 members Nancy Pelosi’s relevance on Capitol hill is practically nil.

However power is in many ways a matter of perception and this move by Nancy Pelosi is a clever if desperate attempt to claim it:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is calling on House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to demand the immediate resignation of Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), who reportedly plans to plead guilty to federal tax evasion charges on Tuesday.

“Now that the election is over, Congressman Grimm is finally admitting the truth to his constituents,” Pelosi said in a brief statement on Tuesday morning. “Clearly, Speaker Boehner must insist that Congressman Grimm resign immediately.”

Pelosi’s “demand” has drawn snark from folks from the conservative hideout to Glenn Reynolds noting Pelosi’s hypocrisy but frankly what’s more interesting is her attempt to jump in front of a parade.

She likely figures it’s a low risk no lose move. When Boehner and the GOP move to remove Grimm from his seat after his guilty plea she will run to the media who will gladly paint her as the person who called for this resignation while at the same time she will note the jabs over her hypocrisy, however accurate, as a sign she still matters and fundraise from a gullible base with them.

And if for some inexplicable reason the GOP doesn’t force Grimm it’s even better. She has Grimm, convicted of Tax evasion as a club to beat the GOP with for as long as he holds his seat.

How should the GOP proceed? Substantially if Grimm doesn’t resign on his own the House ethics committee should move to expel him. Politically if and I should really say “when” the media asks him about Pelosi’s demands he should say this:

“Like the voters of America I believe Nancy Pelosi’s opinions should have no bearing on how the House of Representatives operates.”

While such an answer is not only a low-cost way to please his base but it will pay one other dividend. Such a statement would ill will likely lead to outrage by the lefts allies in both print and television media but it will also give an opportunity for the GOP’s allies on the right to crank out story after story highlighting a truth that no amount of outrage, indignation or spin can alter.

Nancy Pelosi is completely without power on Capitol hill and is likely to remain so for the rest of her life.

The only comment about any Democrat member of the house that any Republican should give is on how little they matter.

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Earlier this week, former Alaska governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin declared that it was time to impeach Barack Obama. Predictably, the establishment Republicans immediately and unequivocably distanced themselves from the idea because they fear a repeat of 1998/1999, even as they continue to engineer a repeat of that electoral failure through a comprehensive disassociation from what they sure seem to consider their former base. Surprisingly, a fair number of said former base, conservatives, agree for the same reason.

I’m of a more-cynical mind. Given the Democrats have shown again and again they care not at all for the rule of law, there is no immediately positive point in pursuing the impeachment of Obama. However, that is not to say it shouldn’t be pursued. Eventually, there will be a non-Democrat President elected (do note I didn’t say Republican). If the Democrats have the majority in the House at any point in that administration, they will pursue impeachment because that will be deemed necessary under the “by any means necessary” principle…regardless of whether impeachment charges are pursued against Obama or not. It would be better to have on the record that no high crime or misdemeanor is convictable in the Senate.

Instead of the Constutionally-prescribed method of restraining a rogue President, House Speaker John Boehner (“R”-OH) is setting off on a very foolhardy plan to sue the President over non-enforcement of an existing law. It had been expected that the suit would be based on Obama’s refusal to enforce immigration law, but that might have resulted in the enforcement of the southwest border, and the Big Business cronies that took over the GOP want none of that. They’re planning on going after Obama on the non-enforcement of the employer health-insurance mandate that is part of PlaceboCare.

The likely suit may as well have the Chamber of Commerce as the lead plaintiff instead of the House GOP. Assuming the suit isn’t thrown out (which it will be; see below), should the plaintiffs be successful, said employer mandate will already be in effect on the Big Businesses that the Chamber repesents. A “victory” would only serve to crush the medium-sized businesses competitors to Big Business that are less able to absorb the cost, not remove the employer mandate for all businesses.

Of course, that presumes the suit wouldn’t be thrown out. It almost certainly will be tossed because the Republicans don’t have standing to sue. There is no case law stating that Congressmen have any standing to challenge the enforcement or non-enforcement of a law that does not directly affect said Congressman’s non-legislative interests. While there is limited case law saying that can be done by a state or local member of a legislative body, there are only two instances where said member has standing – (a) the member is part of the voting bloc that expressly and successfully blocked (or but for a tiebreaking procedure on a constitutional amendment, would have successfully blocked) enactment of a piece of legislation, yet provisions of that legislation were implemented anyway, or (b) the member is part of the voting block that voted for a duly-enacted piece of legislation, yet provisions of said legislation were not implemented.

The Republicans didn’t have the votes to stop the enactment of PlaceboCare in 2010, when both the original bill and the amending bill were before the House. So, what’s their argument? That given another bite at the apple, they would vote for PlaceboCare? Given their actions of the last 2 years, from the nomination of the godfather of PlaceboCare as their 2012 Presidential nominee to the quiet replacement of “repeal and replace ObamaCare” by “‘substantially’ fix ObamaCare”, one can reasonably conclude that the one-word message from the GOP to those who supported them because of their earlier stated opposition to PlaceboCare is the same one being given to those who supported the GOP because the party claimed to be conservative or because the party claimed to care about the rule of law instead of the rule of tyrants – “SUCKERS!”

This should be a watershed year for the GOP. Propaganda not withstanding the costs of Obamacare continue to increase, the international failures of the administration are on full display and as each day goes by it becomes clear that the IRS scandal has the potential to incriminate not just people in the administration, but members of the congress in a vile attempt to use the tax agency to intimidate and suppress political opposition.

Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the divisive issue before the November elections.Many lawmakers and activists have assumed the issue was off the table in an election year. But Mr. Boehner said at a Las Vegas fundraiser last month he was “hellbent on getting this done this year,” according to two people in the room.

Well that’s absolute nonsense, the Speaker of the house advancing a policy diametrically opposed to the base of the party in a year when winning or losing is going to turn on the turnout of that base. Besides none of this was recorded. I’m sure when the office of the speaker was contacted they completely disavowed those remarks.

A spokesman for Mr. Boehner didn’t dispute the account but said no action is possible until President Barack Obama proves himself a trustworthy partner to Republicans.

Seriously?

The question apparently isn’t if Barack Obama is a trustworthy partner to the Republicans, the question seems to be instead is the GOP a trustworthy partner to its base?

What is the point of having a party and a platform and asking people to join, contribute or work for a party if it ignores the best interest of its members and only takes care of the higher ups? If GOP members wanted that, they could join a union.

I have said repeatedly that in a general election it is necessary to make the best available choice, that staying home was not an option and have tried to make that case to anyone willing to listen. It is stories like this that increasingly make this position untenable.

If the national GOP insists that the base stay home, the votes will be happy to oblige. I’m sure the candidates down ticket will understand.

Stupid party indeed.

Oh and if I was a conservative activist I’d start the paperwork for the formation of those state “Conservative parties” now so that it can be filed the day amnesty passes the House.

Update: Added graphic and emphasized part of quote

Update 2: This might explain a lot

If you want to buck your base to pay off the fat cats you won’t find a better time then when your opponents are in retreat.

He’s betting that nothing the GOP does, up to and including amnesty, will enrage grassroots conservatives so much that they’re likely to stay home in protest in November because of it. Anger at ObamaCare trumps all. When the dust settles, after a week or two of talk radio calling Boehner a traitor for passing an immigration bill and vowing to go third party, everyone will swallow hard and decide that they have no choice but to vote for the GOP anyway in the name of stopping O-Care. The redder the Senate turns next year, the greater the odds of repeal in 2017.

But it’s the last sentence of that paragraph that GOP voters should take to heart.

Although if they’d sell you out on immigration, I’m not sure why you’d think they won’t sell you out on that too when the time comes.

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Friday is here and the worst week of the what is shaping up to be the worst month financially for this blog is again taking shape.

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz could stage another filibuster – this time in an attempt to raise the debt limit…

The bill on Wednesday moves to the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to pass the legislation later this week.

Cruz plans to object to hold a simple majority vote, thus seeking a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

But while Cruz got headlines his move had big implications in the upper house. It meant the bill couldn’t pass without at least 6 republican votes but WHICH republicans would flip?

Republican leadership worked the floor as they searched for votes. Finally, several Republican leaders exited the cloakroom and changed their votes, as if to say “let’s all hold hands and jump together.” First, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Cornyn cast yes votes,with the latter having initially voted no.emphasis mine

Excuse me? Am I to understand that less than 24 hours after Wendy Davis flipped on the debt ceiling Senator Cornyn facing a primary fight from Dwayne Stovall flip flopped on the debt ceiling? Not only is the answer “yes” but it’s worse than it sounds

Senators said four Republicans were willing to join all 55 Democrats, but that left them one vote shy of the 60 needed to break the filibuster.

Ultimately, Mr. McConnell came to the well of the chamber and cast his vote as the crucial 60th supporter.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican, then switched to join Mr. McConnell in opposing the filibuster. He and other allies then went to try to persuade other Republicans to join them in a show of solidarity.

Apparently the fix was in.

Now I understand the argument the political argument for this vote:
It’s better to get rid of this issue for the left can’t use it to bombard the GOP in the midterms. With the MSM behind them Democrats, as Glenn Reynolds put it, have air superiority & would use it.

But if you actually believe this was the case, the honorable thing, the thing a leader does, is make that argument openly and out front, both to the voters and on the Senate floor.

As much as I disagree with John Boehner on this he made that honorable argument leading from the front.

John Cornyn can’t say the same. He didn’t even have the propriety to abstain from voting then joining his leader. He was a “No” right up until the moment his boss discovered no other Senator drive off the cliff for them. Then like Louise to McConnell’s Thelma Cornyn jumped in the car grabbed his partner’s hand and switched.

“Cornyn’s vote with the Democrats to end debate on the bill helped to clear the way for its passage. That required 60 votes, and John Cornyn joined with Mitch McConnell to hand that liberal victory to Harry Reid. Once cleared, the simple majority of Democrats in the Senate was all that was needed to pass it. This allowed Cornyn to vote No on the final bill so that he could say he voted against it. That’s a half-truth and it’s misleading. The bill would never have passed if it were not for Sen. Cornyn’s bait and switch tactics.”

“Sen. Cornyn betrays the trust of Texas and votes with the Democrats at every opportunity. A vote for John Cornyn is a vote for more debt that enslaves us, our children, and our grandchildren. I’ve said throughout my campaign, and I will say again, I will never vote to increase the federal debt. Now I pledge to filibuster every bill that seeks to do so. We cannot continue on this unsustainable path.”

“I will never do procedural bait-and-switch voting like John Cornyn.

He didn’t spare Steve Stockman hie ire either referencing this story in the Washington post

Among those voting with Boehner were Reps. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.) and Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who just three weeks ago refused to support Boehner in the formal vote for House speaker. Later, after the measure easily amassed enough votes to pass, Stockman joined some other conservatives in switching his vote to “no” — a sign that he opposed the measure but was willing to support Boehner if his vote had been needed.

One of the things Ted Cruz decried in this long speech last October was his disgust with people who cast meaningless votes to cover themselves. This is a great example of it.

What’s actually wrong here is that voters have tolerated such an egregious evasion of responsibility for so long. Our representatives, one might have been tempted to think, are elected to do mature, adult work on tough issues like budgets. And here we see a ‘clever’ system whereby the cloture vote is the one that matters, and the simple majority vote on the legislation is an afterthought, so that Senators can do their foul deeds while piously claiming to vote against them.

This pattern is not dissimilar from one a couple thousand years ago involving the Sanhedrin and the Romans.

Why is this November’s election not a sure thing for the GOP? Because it’s entirely unclear that, given majority power again, the GOP would be any less wretched than Reid, Pelosi and crew.

There is a reason why Tea party types don’t trust the GOP, stuff like this is it.

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One of the most solid pieces of conventional wisdom in the MSM is that a government shutdown hurts the GOP.

Back in October the MSM went on and on about how horrible the shutdown was. Every single day the GOP in general & Ted Cruz in particular were attacked. The House was decried as obstructionists, bi-partisan spending bills which were regularly passed with 30 votes were ignored by the media and Harry Reid unwillingness to bring any of them up to a vote was completely ignored by the mass media.

When a deal was finally made that gave the left pretty much what they wanted the media talked about how Ted Cruz & the Tea Party had not only given President Obama, who had just been humiliated in Syria, a badly needed victory but had pretty much destroyed their power and influence for good.

Then Obamacare imploded.

While the Obamacare site crashed and burned and American’s health plans disappeared taking Democrats 2014 fortunes with it, the media took time from playing defense for the law & the White House to attack Ted Cruz & the Tea Party as fools whose shut down fight kept the focus off of Obamacare’s failures for weeks.

The bill was approved in a 221-201 vote, largely on the backs of Democrats. Only 28 Republicans voted for it, while 199 voted against.

Only two Democrats voted against the clean debt-ceiling hike, which was backed by the White House and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, while 193 voted “yes.” The two defections were Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah), who is not running for reelection, and Rep. John Barrow (Ga.), who faces a tough race.

Excuse me? The Democrats bailed the GOP out?

The GOP speaker is of course delighted but confused that is caucus is not:

Boehner just stood there for a moment after he finished, eyed the room, and walked toward his seat. On his way there, Boehner shook his head, then turned to the nearly mute crowd and wondered aloud why he wasn’t getting applause. “I’m getting this monkey off your back and you’re not going to even clap?”

While he is confused by his caucus’ reaction he can take solace in the fact that the Morning Joe table on MSNBC is praising of him with only the slightest critique by Joe Scarborough.

As so many seem confused by the disappointment of conservatives lack of celebration let me explain it in easy to understand terms:

Democrats given the choice of…

Plan A:

Sitting back and watching the GOP fail to pass a debt ceiling bill causing another shutdown that would assure them of hundreds of hours of video and thousands of pages of print coverage excoriating the GOP for doing so.

OR

Plan B:

Voting en masse to pass a debt ceiling bill taking the issue off the table for the GOP and making it a one day story.

Those Democrats who a few minutes after the latest Obamacare delay sent out a blast e-mail INSISTING it is working

At the moment Democrats are in most need of a boost to their electoral fortunes those Democrats Choose Plan B!

Maybe it’s just me but doesn’t anyone in the House leadership or the MSM find it even a tad odd that the House Democrats were willing to provide so many votes for something completely opposite to what conventional wisdom says is their political advantage in a tough election year?

Before the House voted to raise the debt ceiling without any spending reductions or restorations of the military pension cuts Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly warned her members not to act like Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman and taunt the “mediocre” GOP leadership for caving.

…If the Democrat leader has to warn her caucus not to gloat in public over this bill perhaps the GOP leader should not be wondering why his caucus isn’t cheering.

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“I was frustrated, too,” he said. “But I think these are very important elements of our conservative family. I would prefer to keep those conversations within the family. And I think he was just basically voicing his frustration with their opposition before we had reached our agreement.”

He added: “I think these taxpayer groups are indispensable to keeping taxpayer interest accounted for, keeping people accountable. And we sometimes have difference of opinions on tactics. We all believe the same thing with respect to our ultimate goal.”

“He was frustrated that these groups came out in opposition to our budget agreement before we reached a budget agreement,” Ryan said in an interview set to air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Meet the Press? That show doesn’t air until Sunday Morning.

I certainly can’t complement Congressman Ryan on an interview that airs tomorrow. How do we know the show won’t be preempted or these words won’t be cut before broadcast? In fact, how does the Hill know what was said in an interview that hasn’t aired and they weren’t party to at all?

The very idea The Hill would have any clue as to the content of NBC’s interview before it is released is as absurd as Tea Party groups having knowledge of what might be in a budget deal before an agreement is reached or me claiming that John Boehner outburst was simply him celebrating the traditional Festivus airing of grievances a few weeks early.

Unless, of course it’s Christmas / Festivus Miracle!

Update: Another Festivus Miracle, Big Money Corporations supporting the left when everyone in the media knows they are in the pocket of the right.

Coca Cola is a donor. Yes, the same Coca Cola that severed its ties with ALEC because of a liberal hissy fit and boycott threat by the left over ALEC’s support of voter ID laws. Think Progress, which is financed by CAP, touted Coca Cola’s caving to the pressure, but did they reveal they receive funding from Coca Cola? Why does Coca Cola continue to fund a group that supported a progressive call for its boycott?

Basil: This is typical. Absolutely typical… of the kind of… ARSE I have to put up with from you people! You ponce in here, expecting to be handwaited on hand and foot while I’m trying to run a hotel here!

Fawlty Towers Warldof Salad 1979

Yesterday I gave some advice on deciding whether or not to support the Ryan Murray budget deal. In my opinion judging the bill based on those factor and calling on your congressman and senator to vote accordingly is smart.

There are decisions concerning the bill that haven’t been so smart such as stuff like this:

House Speaker John Boehner went off on outside conservative groups Wednesday morning for pushing against the new budget deal.

“They’re using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals,” he said. “This is ridiculous.”

Really Mr. Speaker, you’re going to use your face time to attack conservatives? Let me give you some advice before you start giving speeches about Our members.

The reason you have a majority to be speaker , are invited to Sunday shows and have your press conferences covered is because of the Tea Party that mobilized to elect that GOP majority

The reason you keep that majority is those Tea Party voters also gave the GOP the majorities in state houses when it was time to draw districts.

Turn your mind back to when you were first elected, you only were in the house for two years when Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and the conservative movement gave the GOP their first majority since the 50’s, but your predecessors would have different memories.

I wonder what Buz Lukens, elected in 1966 & 1986, Walter Powell, elected in 1970, Tom Kindess elected in 1974 would have given to enjoy the support of those tea party republicans and those conservative activists. What do you think they would have given to be in the majority for just one term?

It took great effort by an awful lot of people to achieve that GOP house majority that you preside over, and it will take more than Obamacare to get people to overcome their natural inertia to turn out to give the GOP the senate in 2014 and if you don’t believe me ask Senator Gabriel Gomez (R-Hisapnica) how easy it was to bring out the 50% of 2010 Scott Brown voters he needed to win or ask why former Senator Brown crossed the border rather than run in a state where he ran away from his base. As Powerline said yesterday:

In all likelihood, he has the votes he needs to pass the deal. So why lash out at opponents within the Party? Does Boehner imagine a Republican majority in which groups like Heritage and the Club for Growth have abandoned the Party? I don’t, and certainly not a conservative majority. So why antagonize them unnecessarily?

You’re the freaking leader of the GOP. If you’re pissed off, vent in private, let an aide leak something in background or do what I do, get yourself in front of a pinball machine and beat the crap out of it. You don’t repeatedly go after conservatives group and by extension the base in that way and feed the MSM’s “GOP base crazy/angry” meme that they will jump all over because let me tell you, if you become the minority leader unlike Nancy Pelosi the media will have no interest in anything you have to say.

And if you can’t trust your self-control in public then take President Coolidge’s advice and just be quiet.

FYI at this moment despite a successful week I’m $183 behind the pace to make this month mortgage. I only need 62 1/2 subscribers at $20 a month to cover Da Mortgage & Da Magnificent Seven writers for a full year. If I can get those subscribers it would not only be a great Christmas gift for me but it would be one that gave back to you 365 days a year in 2015.

Like this:

As I was watching Morning Joe today I kept hearing that John Boehner was lying when he said he couldn’t pass a clean CR.

We had graphics showing numbers of “potential” GOP votes In the house for a clean CR and more anonymous quotes from unnamed GOP congressmen.

and they mentioned vote counts

Joe Scarborough: let’s talk fact. from everybody you have talked to, everybody i talked to, it seems to me that John Boehner could pass a clean c.r. today and a clean debt ceiling increase this morning with the republicans and all the democrats.

Jemery Peters NYT: I talked to democrats and republicans who were bewildered by what john boehner said. peter king said there are 50 to 75 republican votes for this. peter king is one of the republicans who’s been counting. he told me he thinks there would be 150 vote ifs the it were a secret ballot.

However the congress doesn’t vote anonymously and nobody seems to be able to name actual house member who will vote with dems. Even Rep Peter King the most vocal & quoted public critic of the GOP in general & Ted Cruz in particular when publicly asked said he would NOT vote for a discharge petition.

However for people who can count real numbers there have been actual bills where actual congressmen have cast actual votes against the official party line in the House.

There was a vote to fund NIH, a vote to open monuments, a vote to fund veterans programs.

On each of those voter dozens of members bucked their own party to pass them, yet those votes are not getting any attention from the press and you might wonder why?

I don’t.

You see on each of those voters it was democrats who voted with Republicans on these votes to pass them in the house and such votes don’t promote the meme of GOP disunity and political failure simply are not newsworthy. The only mention of it came from Ted Cruz directly (via Newsbusters):

Sen Ted Cruz: The House has passed eight other bills funding things like our veterans, funding things like the national parks, and Harry Reid has killed them. Now, let me be clear, because it’s important to understand. These bills, none of them even mention Obamacare. They’re programs completely unrelated to Obamacare.

Candy Crowley: But obviously, they feel that if you can use this kind of leverage, they feel it’s blackmail. But let me ask you something about your fellow Republicans.

Sen Ted Cruz: But Candy, let me press back. It’s twice you’ve said Harry Reid would say it’s blackmail. And I want to press back, because I actually — I think that’s a false claim with no basis. The bill that the House passed on the VA simply funds the VA. It doesn’t mention anything about Obamacare. It doesn’t mention anything about anything else. Now, for hundreds of years, the way Congress is appropriated has been one topic at a time. How is it blackmail to say we think we should fund the veterans? Do you agree? That’s a yes or no vote. Now Harry Reid refuses to let the Democrats vote on that. But how is it blackmail to say, we may not agree on everything but is there anything we can agree on? We ought to agree on emphasis mine

General Custer:Still trying to outsmart me, aren’t you, mule-skinner. You want me to think that you don’t want me to go down there, but the subtle truth is you really *don’t* want me to go down there!

Little Big Man 1970

The MSM is continuing to hammer the GOP over the new government shutdown that has taken place today. Everything is all about “When will the GOP blink?”, “When will the GOP run away?” They point to the new polls showing that by a ten point margin the GOP gets more blame than the White House or Senate. Given the constant drumbeat of the media, the GOP vs Dem rating is actually quite an accomplishment.

The MSM doesn’t see any way for the GOP to win this but the truth is they have the win in their hand. In fact the answer is so simple I’m almost ashamed I have to detail it.

Here is basically how it works: It starts with the following speech from John Boehner:

Today thanks to the intransigence of the White House and Harry Reid government has shut down. We have sent bill after bill, we have tried and the White House and the Senate has decided Obamacare, the Medical Devices Tax and perks for members of congress that are not available to average Americans are more important than funding government.

But the essence of the solution and compromise is not to emphasize disagreement but to advance where we agree and that is what we in the house intend to do

Today as part of the closing of government national parks are being closed, both democrats and republicans are in favor of wanting American’s to enjoy them. We are sending Harry Reid a bill to fully fund the national park system and I invite the Democrats to pass it.

At this point the house passes the funding for National Parks and the Senate can either pass it or not pass it.

If the Senate tables it, or votes it down: During every single media appearance GOP members should ask why the Democrats are unwilling to fund national parks, something all Americans agree on, and let democrats explain why they can’t vote for that spending. This should not change until the Senate either votes for it, or agrees to a conference committee.

If the Senate votes for it and the president signs it: The GOP spends one day praising it as compromise and a sign we can work together and ask for a Democrat counter offer or conference etc:

If an acceptable compromise or conference is offered: Accept it saying “We’re pleased that the Democrats have FINALLY decided to compromise.”

If not then wait a day then repeat the initial speech with a different part of Government. It must be a part of government that has broad support with the American People of both parties and pass a bill to fund that part of government with the same: I invite Democrats to pass it. And repeat the process above until you get to the final compromise.

This should continue until you run out of parts of government that has broad support. Once you are down to the pieces of government that are overwhelmingly supported by democrats and overwhelmingly opposed by republicans, Planned Parenthood funding, Acorn, PBS etc etc etc. simply stop.

At this point the only folks complaining will be people who will not be voting for you anyway, let them complain and wait for Democrats to offer a deal you can accept, if they do, fine. If they don’t then congratulate yourselves, because you have effectively cut every piece of government that we shouldn’t be funding anyway.

And when the vast majority of voters note that they can do without those pieces of government, the game is over and you’ve won.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, floated a proposal Tuesday to end the stalemate that led to the government shutdown by asking Congress to pass smaller, individual agency budgets rather than one big measure to cover all its programs.

Lee said on the Senate floor that he supports passing temporary budgets for the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, the federal courts, NASA and the Interior Department so that their operations could continue while Congress debates funding for the Democrats’ health-care law.

Update: added the missing word “then” to a sentence

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The Government is “shut down” but DaTechguy Blog continues and keeps continuing as long as the $305 weekly paycheck continues.

Over the last 8 months the mortgage has been paid by you. It’s now October there is a new mortgage and a new quest to pay it.

If you think this writing and this plan is worth it, please hit DaTipJar below.

Pop Fisher: My gut tells me this, and Red agrees. We feel Hobbs can fill your position very neatly. We’ll give you one more chance to shape up. Otherwise, it’s the bench.

The Natural 1984

The Batman: Ladies, gentlemen, you’ve eaten well. You’ve eaten Gotham’s wealth. Its spirit. But your feast is nearly over. From this moment on, none of you are safe.

Batman 405 (1987) …on TV as Batman Year One (2011)

Friday I talked about the GOP as Drew Bledsoe, not bad getting the team to the playoffs but not realizing that there is a plethora of people on the bench just waiting to take the field. while the GOP takes their IQ test concerning the Happy Prospect terrible threat of Sequestration

The time to take over the GOP (state by state) or set up a real third party (let’s call it the conservative party, like NY state), is NOW, after a historic election that demonstrated the ineptness of the “Wizards of Smart”.

If the GOP fails this test and continues to fall for this nonsense, I suggest conservatives state by state follow the New York Model and create the “Conservative Party” to compete with the GOP.

Additionally I think we conservatives should make this threat publicly and directly because the impact of this threat is considerable and directed right at the people it needs to be put to the most.

Consider, one of the pressures being put on Tea-Party conservatives is the threat of an even worse deal as the Speaker goes to democrats for the votes needed to pass his bill. He would need to bring about 30 members of the GOP with him to get to 218 and obviously they would be from “safe seats”.

But what if those seats weren’t safe anymore? What if there was a conservative party running candidates in those establishment GOP districts that are considered safe GOP? Suddenly those seat are in play and our democrat friends would jump in with both feet. In fact I suspect Soros money would pour in to build up such a conservative party in order to divide the GOP.

Now I’m sure there are those saying: “But DaTechGuy, you’d be giving the election to the democrats”, consider these two points, one from Mike Rogers:

If we successfully set up a conservative party, and win some seats, we can choose to align with Republicans or even endorse their candidate as a tactical matter on a vote by vote basis.

The vast majority of the time the NY Conservative Party endorses the GOP candidate, but when we have a Dede Scozzafava we can say: NO!

And this one that’s new from me: Let’s say the GOP caucus says NO WAY! and Speaker John Boehner passes this with 30-50 GOP and 190 Dems (in reality anything resembling cuts won’t get all the dems). We challenge these GOP members in deep red districts and the democrats take the house in 2014, two positive things happen.

1. Every member of the GOP discovers none of them are safe without us.

2. The Democrats get control in the last two years of the presidency of Barack Obama meaning that going into 2016 they get full blame for all that will come. If Obamacare passed in 2011 rather than 2009 Mitt Romney is president today with large majorities in both houses.

Those two years in the wilderness will have a payoff of real conservatives for years to come, a situation our children and grandchildren will thank us for.

I’d like to remind the GOP of one thing, I was a conservative Democrat and left the Democrat party when it didn’t represent my values anymore. I joined the Republican party because I decided it was time to publicly be the side I was on. If the GOP doesn’t represent my values or is embarrassed by me, if they don’t want to admit needed the conservatives except on election day and on fundraising days then that’s fine, I can take hint and I suspect a lot of the grass root conservatives and tea party members can too.

If he and McConnell join Reid in signing off on the deal tonight, the full weight of approving the deal will fall on Pelosi and the House Democrats tomorrow. That would leave liberals doubly screwed, not only stuck with a deal they hate but in danger of destroying the left’s relentless messaging that Republicans are the obstructionists here. For six months we’ve been told that those crazy wingnuts are willing to hit the debt ceiling and throw America into economic chaos to make their point; if Pelosi walks away 24 hours before the ceiling deadline after all three other congressional leaders have blessed the deal, that’ll blow up right in her face. I’m amazed, frankly, that Reid publicly approved the deal before she had a chance to talk to House Democrats. All that does is weaken her leverage in holding out and hand the GOP a talking point about how radical House liberals are even by the standards of Harry Reid. But maybe that was Reid’s point: By offering his approval early, he’s maximizing the odds that House Democrats will cave and that this thing really will pass.

Strangely enough on Morning Joe he says if he was a house democrat he would vote no. Somehow if the bill fails it’s the GOP’s fault for defeating it but it’s not up to Democrats to support their president and Harry Reid.

I’d have to say the tea party looked at my advice…

Ride right through them, they’re demoralized as hell

…and took it to heart.

Well done folks, well done indeed!

Update: I can’t believe I forgot to Mention Michael Steele, he was magnificent on MSNBC this morning and actually brought up that the spending anger among Republicans started under the Bush Administration (didn’t mention porkbusters by name) and more importantly he mentioned it before Mika and Heilmann so when it came up Joe Scarborough said Steele already addressed it.

If his performance was this good as GOP chairman he might still be the top man.

Love him or hate him Ted Kennedy was one of the most effective Senators in the history of the land.

Kennedy’s genius was political. It was in his ability to be wholly partisan publicly while making compromises that slowly and surely advanced his agenda over the decades. Each change establishing principles (read disasters) that became the new baseline for the next deal. If Ted Kennedy instead played Bernie Sanders game, he never would have achieved anything he wanted. By happily taking a small piece at a time he changed the land making it , in many ways a country that is totally different from the one I grew up in.

The Tea Party Freshman have been following my advice concerning the democrats and have ridden right through them, and pushed them, but I think they might not realize how much they’ve already won.

Consider:

Gone is the talk about raising the tax rates or repealing the “Bush Tax Cuts” (and how stupid are democrats? Thanks to them the words “Tax Cuts” and “George Bush” are linked forever!)

Gone is the talk of a second stimulus, no sign of any kind of big spending is to be had.

The only talk is cuts, some are real, some of shadowy, but the only topic on the table is cuts cuts cuts.

Put simply the conversation in Washington has shifted, the battle is now being fought on the ground of our choosing, not the Democrats field, not the President’s field and not the Establishment Republicans field, but it’s now in our park.

We have set the state for the political battle in 2012, a clear choice between the parties, and we have changed the debate inside the republican party as well.

We have driven our political foes from the field and chased them to the gates of the White house, but we are in danger of overrunning our supply train, or spending our horses so to speak.

We have pushed it as far as we practically can with only a single house. The time has come to reign in the horses and resupply. I think the time has come to pass the Boehner plan.

The GOP gets it, they will not be able to go back to business as usual and they understand that if they try to do so, we will stop them.

After 2012 with a GOP president and a GOP Senate we will have even more leverage that we do now and will be able to make the types of permanent changes, chances that will achieve the goals caused many of you got involved.

It took decades to make this mess, if it takes more than a single congressional session to set it right, I think that’s acceptable.

We’ve won the tactical battle, but to win the war I think it’s time to think strategic.

My advice is to vote for the Boehner plan today, and in 2013 we will be able to finish the job you started.

In closing, let me say, I’m extremely proud of all of you, you’ve exceeded my wildest expectations. You’ve ridden right through them , now lets rest and feed the horses so we can do it again.

Like this:

There are an awful lot of people who have been disappointed in the performance of John Boehner as speaker.

With the majority that he has many had high expectations of what he would achieve. He would managed to get Obamacare repealed, he would achieve massive budget cuts, he would lead and the president and the Senate would have to follow.

As we all know it hasn’t worked out that way. The senate has foiled the house, the President hasn’t played ball and in the house and the media have crucified him and the house over the Ryan Budget, over the Planned Parenthood cut attempts over the possible shutdown and now this weekend over a golf game where he tried to work things out.

It may not be clearly understood but I think it’s been brilliant.

Barack Obama is in a bad situation, much worse than the media and the polls and a big part of the reason of it is Boehner.

Yes he has failed to force the change we would all like with half of a single branch of a government but consider the contrast he has made.

Boehner has passed, and passed and passed, The Ryan budget, the planned parenthood cuts, the trims on the continuing resolutions. Instead of the “party of no” the Republicans have been the party of “Go!”

Meanwhile Democrats who hold the executive branch and the Senate have blocked and blocked and blocked again and more importantly they didn’t have actual alternatives.

This president desperately needs to make this election a referendum on something other than himself as Harry Truman did when in a big hole in 1948 running against a “do nothing congress”. Barack Obama can not do this because the “do nothings” in congress are in his own party.

And because Boehner has been firm yet seemingly accommodating the only hope for this administration is a bad choice for a GOP nominee.

The end result, it more likely that the GOP will have the power to make the changes that Democrats were so anxious to block this term.

“Who here trusts the GOP?” Not a single hand went up, but people over and over promised me that if the GOP spent like the democrats they would be back to throw them out too. No wonder the GOP is scared of the tea party.

I am going to await a response before I comment further but this weekend when I have small business people who are likely going to be wanting answers because they are the people who have to try to stay in business under this nonsense.

If Boehner is throwing away the trust of the activists who got him that chair then the GOP will deserve all that they get from it.
Update: It apparently takes more than a CBO report to defeat a bill. No sign yet on how the vote split.

In terms of right and wrong, of course the planned parenthood money is evil, but it has been evil for years, the fact that it is now on the table and more importantly will be on the table again is very important. Democrats control the senate, they control the White House and the media and the Dems had to go all out to preserve it.

As Col Allen West put it this morning: “It takes 5 miles to turn an Aircraft Carrier around but it’s heading in the right direction.”

In terms of the Tea Party Agenda this is an important change; culturally the “idea” of these cuts is huge and it’s just the beginning, particularly when we see so many democrats forced to give lip service to them, Stacy’s opinion not withstanding.

I would liken today’s results to the beginning of Chickamauga campaign. It began with General Rosecrans almost bloodless advance into Georgia flanking Braxton Bragg out of one position after another. Like that situation in Democrats have talked big but been forced to retreat again and again.

When the debt ceiling bill comes up and the budget fight comes I suspect we will also see democrats flanked out of their positions again and forced to retreat.

Bottom line? Everything we got we got with 1/3 of the power, what do you think will happen next year when we have the senate and perhaps the White House? Do you think a democratic minority in the senate will want to shut down the government in, say 2013 with a filibuster over PP and NPR? Lets remember that one of the reasons arch liberal Ted Kennedy was so successful is he repeatedly took a part of the loaf until he not only had all the bread but people were using his recipe to bake it. There is no reason why we can’t do the same.

As long as we don’t make the critical mistake Rosecrans made in the final battle we’ll be fine, but we have to keep them on the defensive or to put it another way:
Ride Right through them, they’re demoralized as hell!

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